Category: INTERNATIONAL
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Kenyattas’ CBA bank in bid to acquire Kigali lender
Commercial Bank of Africa (CBA), which is majority-owned by the Kenyatta family, is in the running to acquire the Rwandese subsidiary of Uganda’s Crane Bank in what marks the latest expansion of the wealthy family’s empire. CBA already operates an equivalent of mobile banking service M-Shwari in Rwanda using a microfinance licence. The Nairobi-based lender…
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Namibia secures $750 million loan from African Development Bank
Namibia has secured a 10 billion Namibian dollars ($750 million)loan from the African Development Bank to finance its budget deficit and infrastructure projects, Finance Minister Calle Schlettwein said on Thursday. Namibia’s budget deficit is expected to narrow to 3.6 percent of GDP in the current 2017/18 fiscal year from 6.3 percent in the prior year.…
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East Africa: Oil prices unlikely to rise beyond $55 soon as glut lingers
Indications are that global crude oil over-supply will linger on much longer, and this will slow down the upward movement of prices. When the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) decided last November to strengthen oil prices by reducing production by 1.8 million barrels per day(bpd), global oil prices complied and increased to a range…
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Nigerian Officials Speak As IMF Forecasts 2.6% Growth in Economy in 2017
The federal government on Tuesday said it was optimistic of a modest recovery from recession and growth in the economy, as the International Monetary Fund, IMF, predicted a 2.6 per cent growth in the economy in 2017. Nigeria has witnessed a mixed fortune in her earnings from oil in the last three years either as…
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Angola:Plane Power: How Software and Jet Engine Tech is Helping Angola Leapfrog into the Digital Age
Available capital isn’t the only obstacle to economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa. Another major hurdle is the lack of reliable electricity. In fact, large parts of the region have no power at all. This makes it hard for entrepreneurs to build businesses, create jobs and generate wealth. But things are changing. This week, Angola, Africa’s…
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Nigeria:Moody’s maintains stable outlook on banking system
Moody’s Investors Service is maintaining its stable outlook on the Nigerian banking system, reflecting the rating agency’s view that acute foreign-currency shortages will gradually ease, though loan risks will remain high. The outlook expresses Moody’s expectation of how bank creditworthiness will evolve in Nigeria over the next 12-18 months. Moody’s report, entitled “Banking System Outlook:…
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Nigeria: Oil Workers Threaten to Shut Down ExxonMobil Operations
Oil workers under the aegis of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has threatened to shut down the operations of Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited, an affiliate of ExxonMobil until the sacked workers are recalled. The workers yesterday picketed the company’s offices in Lagos and Port Harcourt and insisted that the…
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Nigeria: Oil Deal – Saudi Minister’s Statement Good News to Nigeria
A statement by Saudi energy minister on extension of oil cut agreement will be good news Nigeria, PREMIUM TIMES can report. Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister, Khalid Al-Falih, said on Monday that oil markets were rebalancing after years of oversupply. Speaking at an industry event in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Mr Al-Falih said he still expected an…
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East Africa:Savers hit as pension returns fall below the inflation rate
Pension returns fell below the rate of inflation in the year to March mainly driven by poor stock returns, effectively eroding the gains of savers in retirement schemes for the period. A pension industry survey for the first quarter of the year done by Alexander Forbes Financial Services shows the average return by pension schemes…
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East Africa: Safaricom full-year profit rises 18.3 per cent to Sh45bn
Telecommunications firm Safaricom has announced an 18.3 per cent net profit rise to Sh45.1 billion in the year to March 2017. Total revenue crossed the Sh200 billion mark for the first time to stand at Sh212.9 billion, an 8.8 per cent rise. The revenue growth is backed by a strong performance in mobile money M-Pesa…